


Moth on Ice

by eldritchbitch



Category: The Adventure Zone (Podcast)
Genre: Alternate Universe, Anxiety, Anxiety Attacks, Comfort, First Dates, Fluff, Gay, Ice Skating, M/M, Panic Attacks
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2018-12-05
Updated: 2018-12-05
Packaged: 2019-09-12 04:40:48
Rating: Teen And Up Audiences
Warnings: No Archive Warnings Apply
Chapters: 1
Words: 1,648
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/16866316
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/eldritchbitch/pseuds/eldritchbitch
Summary: Duck and Indrid's first date doesn't go as smoothly as Indrid had hoped. AU where Duck is just a normal civilian person and doesn't know Indrid is the Mothman.





	Moth on Ice

Indrid was having a terrible time.

All things considered, the date really hadn't been that bad. It'd been lovely, actually. Or at least, Duck had. No, the terrible-ness of it all, Indrid told himself, was his own fault. From the moment Duck first texted him, inviting him to go out ice-skating on a small forest pond- God, why _ice-skating,_ of all things- he knew he was going to be a mess. Nevermind the fact that Kepler in the winter averaged a _high_ of _40 fucking_ _degrees_ during the day, that had been the least of his worries; though admittedly, trying to cram himself into every sweater, jacket, and poncho he owned had been a massive pain in the ass. (He had caught Duck trying not to laugh at his exaggerated puffy form when he'd arrived, which didn't help his nerves.) Weather aside, his main fear lay in him not making a fool of himself, or more specifically, not seeming like the inhuman monster he secretly was.

He'd done all right, at first, chatting to Duck about the weather, (the most normal thing he could think of,) and had tried his best to just focus on not falling on his ass as the two began skating. He couldn't remember the last time he'd even _thought_ about ice-skating, let alone done it, assuming he ever even had. Duck was a natural at it. Made sense, Indrid had thought, as Duck told him about coming to this pond as a kid and messing around on the sturdy ice with his younger sister. Indrid was grateful that at least one of them knew how to keep steady footing- it dramatically lowered the number of times he fell down to only about 7. Maybe 10. He'd lost count, but that didn't make it any less embarrassing each new time he ate absolute shit on the pond's cold, unforgiving surface.

On the other hand, clinging desperately to Duck for support allowed him to be close to the shorter man, to lean into him and feel some of his body warmth for brief fleeting moments. Duck's jacket smelled like nature, like campfire smoke, like coffee. It smelled like comfort, and safety. Indrid wanted to focus only on that warm jacket, to lose himself in the reassuring scents, but his racing, cluttered visions had other ideas.

Being out in such unfamiliar territory, not just literally, on the ice, but on the date as well... It was getting increasingly overwhelming for him. As the date progressed, no matter how much as he tried to turn off the incessant multitude of future-channels streaming in his mind, they only seemed to get more chaotic, harder to predict, harder to see clearly. Every observable factor- his actions, his speech, Duck's actions, Duck's speech, the ice, the weather, the woods, all of it- could change in a heartbeat. He couldn't make sense of it all, couldn't funnel it down into one most likely path like he usually could. Worse, as time went on, he had begun spiralling without even realizing it. The less he could predict, the more he panicked. The more he panicked, the less he could predict. The static noise in his mind grew louder and louder. He lost track of the passage of time, barely able to discern what was even the present anymore.

He couldn't hear Duck, now, over the chaotic futures, only white noise and the sound of his own pulse. Duck said something, a smile on his face. A joke? Indrid laughed. He kept laughing. He'd been laughing too long, shit, _stop laughing-_

Duck's smile fell. "Indrid, you okay, man?" _Fuck._

Indrid pulled himself violently back into the present at the sound of Duck's voice and forced an awkward grin. "Yes! Yeah, I'm okay, I'm having a great time-" _Fuck, why did he say that??_ "Why do you ask?"

Duck blinked, and looked a little puzzled. "Uh, no reason, I was just... You seem a lil' out of it, that's all." _Fuckfuckfuckfuckfuck-_ "Not in a bad way or nothin'," Duck quickly added, upon seeing what must have been guilt or embarrassment on Indrid's face. "But- If you need a break or somethin', it's okay to say so, really."

Indrid barely processed Duck's words. In addition to the blinding hell in his mind, he was now also mentally kicking himself for having slipped up, having disturbed or upset Duck. He was _ruining_ things, surely, he had to be. Duck thought he was a freak, he could tell, he was certainly _acting_ like one... The collars and fabrics of the excessive amount of winter gear he was wearing felt _too_ hot now, and seemed to constrict around his chest and throat, making it difficult to breathe. The white noise returned, full force, louder than his frantically drumming pulse, drowning out whatever Duck was saying now, and he couldn't breathe, couldn't think, it was all just so loud, _so much,_ he couldn't _breathe-_

_"Indrid."_ Two large, warm, gloved hands clapped firmly onto the sides of Indrid's face, and in an instant, the noise vanished, and he was back, staring dumbfounded at Duck's concerned but determined face, as the ranger instructed gently, _"Breathe."_

Indrid took a shallow, shuddering breath, eyes wide behind his tinted lenses, and exhaled in little more than a sigh. Duck kept staring at him, staring _into_ him, brown eyes full of compassion, and insisted, quieter, "Again." He did so, a little steadier this time, the warm fabric of the other's gloves against his cheeks grounding him, bringing him slowly back to himself. As he continued to breathe, he became more aware of just how close Duck's face was to his own; another inch or two, and their foreheads would be touching. His cheeks flushed, from more than just the cold, and he forced himself to tear his gaze away from Duck's, lowering his eyes to the zipper of the other's jacket instead. Duck, taking this and the breathing as a sign that Indrid was recovering, gently moved his hands from Indrid's face to his shoulders, asking softly, "Better now?"

Indrid nodded slowly, already missing the warmth on his face. He found his voice, after a moment. "...Sorry. I-"

"You don't have to apologize or nothin'." Duck interrupted, cutting him off before he could even start heading down that road again. "I get it, I get real nervous sometimes too. An' if it helps, I think I already know what got you so nervous in th' first place."

Despite himself, Indrid tensed up for a moment. The logical part of his brain told him no, of course Duck didn't know _that._ Hundreds of futures told him so. But having just barely come down from a dangerous mental space, he was still uncertain and vulnerable, and so it took everything he had not to sound as fearful as he felt as he replied warily, "You do...?"

Duck nodded, finally taking his hands from Indrid's shoulders and shoving them back into his pockets for warmth. "Sure. This is prob'ly your first date in a long while, yeah? That'd be enough to make anyone nervous. Hell, I've been outta th' game awhile myself." He looked to Indrid for confirmation of this, and added, "I mean, not to assume or anythin'..."

The tension dropped from Indrid in an instant, and it took conscious effort for him not to sigh in relief. "No, that's- That's correct, it has been awhile..." A pause, as neither knew quite what to say after that, the silence filled only by the faint whistle of the cold winter wind. Indrid finally piped up again, still feeling the need to reassure the other, to resurrect the pleasantness of the date prior to his emotional setback. "I've been enjoying it, though. Our date." He tapped two gloved fingertips together, glancing over at a scuffed patch of ice as he trailed off, "Just... wanted to put that out there..."

Duck chuckled, quietly pointing out, "Well, I mean... Me too, Indy."

Indrid didn't even process the nickname as he blinked and met the other man's gaze dumbly. "Huh?"

“Me too,” Duck repeated with faint amusement, as a smile and a light blush spread across his face. “I’m real glad you agreed to come, an’ I’ve been havin’ a good time with you, and, uh… I like you a lot…”

“Oh,” Indrid managed, his voice coming out a little higher than normal, as his cheeks grew warmer than even his sweater-mummified torso. His heart skipped like a broken record, and like a broken record, he forgot he was supposed to make any other sounds, and was momentarily stuck before he cleared his throat and shook off his stupor. He put on the brightest grin he could manage, and replied with more composure than he felt, “Likewise.”

Duck laughed, and Indrid couldn’t even bother to be embarrassed, because the sound was so joyous and warm and lovely that it didn’t matter what it was directed at. He joined in, softer, as a cover while he secretly admired the way Duck’s eyes crinkled and shoulders bounced when he was laughing. The ranger finally shook his head a bit, laughter fading into just a remaining smile, as he nodded back towards the open space of the pond and suggested, “C’mon, let’s keep movin’, yeah? ‘S way too cold to stay still out here.”

He offered Indrid an elbow to hold onto, which Indrid happily accepted with a nod, and the two headed off again across the ice, easing back into friendly conversation and mostly smooth skating. The day felt warmer to Indrid, after that, and while he didn’t get any less clumsy, he felt lighter on his feet as his date guided him around the pond’s surface. His mind was clear, the ice was beautiful, and he was holding onto the arm of a handsome and wonderful man.

Indrid was having a lovely time.


End file.
